Morris tribune., 1887-09-07
TROPHIES OF THE WAR.
A GLANCE AT THE CAPTURED CON-
FEDERATE FLAGS.

--~S~
Cause-Banners of Silk and Banners
of Tatters-How the Flags Are Kept.
Carried by an elevator five stories up,
under the roof of the war department,
almost burning in this Washington sum-
mer weather, the key being turned by my
guide in the door of an attic room, stood
an instant later in little space hardly
more than ten feet square, nearly within
reaching distance on all sides of these bat
tered momentos of the war, the very men,
ton of which has set afire the hearts of
CO. 900, 900 of people-a few rags saturated
with the explosive wash of patriotismI
But the first thought on seeing them in
this pent up space Of attic is of the small
ness of the cause to the size of the effect.
The flags heaped about the room appear
at FIRST sight only handful at the most,
but counted separately there are 750 in
all, over 500 of them being Confederate
and the remainder Federal flags reoaptured
from their captors. One half OF the entire
number are attached to their slaves as
they were originally taken, the flags OF
the two sections being stacked in separate
masses against two sides OF the room,
facing the other half folded and protrud-
ing from pigeon holes on the opposite walls.
The sight of the Stars and Stripes keeps
always familiar. But the first look at the
dark red heap of the banners of the rebel
lion, piled here against the side of the at
tic, blots out twenty-five years from the
memory and brings back as if it were
yesterday the red years when they waved
at the head of their regiments. There Is
hardly flag among them all that has not
its history recorded in the book in the
hands of the keeper Of the room. All
nearly are riddled with bullets, and many,
like those carried through such battles as
the Wilderness and the second Bull Run,
were shot literally into tatters and almost
unacceptable sprays OF rag.
A SIGNIFICANT CONTRAST.
The contrast in the appearance of the
southern and Union standards Is signif-
cant of the history of the war. The latter
are rugged on clean, polished poles and
are of firm, rich material, many Of them
of silk, showing an abundance in the
north of the fabrics of which they contin-
ued to be made. The majority of the
Confederate flags are Of the wretchedest
shoddy bunting, miserable in color as In
substance, while great numbers of them
are mounted on rude, Embarked gads and
saplings, hastily cut from the woods on
the Misunderstanding the blockade and the
pinching days when war had fallen on q
section without manufactures, and the
intense, desperate purpose Of people for
got seemliness and absorbed every thought
but the winning of their fight.
Many of the flags lying folded in the
boxes and taken out to be exhibited by
the guardian of the room recall still more
wildly the narrow straits of rebellion on
it's last legs, being literally independent of
discrimination in color and made OF
patches from women's dresses and under
skirts of nearly every hue and material
pitiful reminders of the Spartan poverty
and courage that were still to fail of their
end. There are some exceptions, however,
in this storeroom of battle trophies, to these
momentos of the sterner days of the war
for the south. The attendant drew from
the pigeon holes on the walls and unfolded
for my inspection three or four magni-
cent banners of heavy silk, fringed with
tassels of gold and ornamented with
pictures in oil and rich embroiderings on
o field of blue. These flags represent the
early and halcyon days of the lost cause,
when they were made by local associa-
lions of ladies and presented to the mill
tary organizations which carried them.
One of those flags belonged to the Appa-
lachicola guard, whose name is stitched
in gold letters on its fold above the ex-
ultant notices: "In God is Our Trustp'
sour Rights We Will Maintainr' The
finest of them all is the banner presented
by the ladies of Norfolk to the Norfolk
Light artillery" with an oil portrait of
Washington in the center of its field, The
notices on the reverse side being the same
as those of the flag just described.
LUXURY IN DESIGNS.
F The days when the Confederate armies
could afford such luxury in ensigns
quickly passed away, however, as is evil
denced by the collection, representing
every period of the war. In the begin
ming of the civil war the design of the flag
carried by the southern regiments was
that Of the Stars and Bars-two red bars
and one white-changing at later period
to red field with the Southern Cross, re-
sembling the British Union Jack. A
study of the record kept by the war de-
partment of the name and capture of each
of these flags, though a work of days,
would be of intense interest to the veteran
soldier. 1t would recall to him the cpl
sodes Of triumph on half the fields of the
civil war. The sight of the flags them
selves would do something more-quick-
ening his heart beats with memories Of
the great fight. That not few of these
standards have been the centers of deadly
personal encounter is evident from the
numerous blood stains still traceable upon
them. The slaves, also, of many of them
are ragged with the gnaw of bullets, the
lead in some instances piercing their cen
tiers and remaining imbedded in the wood.
Everything, in fact, in the appearance OF
the whole collection, as it is piled here in
the narrow garnet, faded and soiled and
battered, shows that these are no banners
oflholiday parade, but have passed through
the fire and extremity of actual war-the
sorrowful weeds blasted and fallen from
Gs wrath. For myself, not a soldier, but
q resident of Washington during the war
period, I recalled the stirring incidents OF
their presentation to the war department
as they were brought straight from the
fields of their capture.
On one of these occasions thirty of these
standards, as I remember, were carried
here two days after the fight at Winehes-
ter by delegation of soldiers whose hands
had actually seized them in the fight,
Custer with his long, yellow hair, at their
head. Stanton, the grim secretary, I'M
bent Stanton loved results, and these
were the palpable evidences of triumph.
Coming out of the lions den of his office
he took each soldier by the hand and well
coined them as body with speech. AS
the little group stood before his door
listening to his address, the captured
tandards held above their heads in the
narrow hall of the old war department
made picturesque cloud Of color, which,
together with the entire scene, it was not
easy to forget When the affair was over
the soldiers started again for the field,
and Stanton, taking Custer's arm, walked
slowly down the steps of the war Office.
Such was his habit with any of the brill
liant leaders of the war after q visit to his
department - William jackson Arm
strong in New York World.
It were better to have conquered one